woensdag 22 juni 2016

Update: Outdoor climbing and Lead 2

Wow, a long period passed by since my last blog post. That can mean two things: I didn't do any climbing-related stuff or I was too busy doing climbing-related stuff to write about it. Fortunately, the second thing is the case!

So, where to start with? The outdoor Climbing season started with a couple of day trips to Comblain, in Belgium with Harald. Getting up early in the morning, waking up by the cold air while walking to the busstation, falling asleep again in the bus to the trainstation and in the train towards Eindhoven, waking up again a bit in the car towards Belgium and than getting in the Climbing mode when seeing the rocks! The winter temperatures not only caused frozen hands and feet, but also great friction. This made the two daytrips perfect and I managed to climb two 7c's and some other routes pretty easily. Then I started projecting in an 8a, but there was not enough time to finish it.

Then Noel and me went on a trip to Spain, where we did a lot of walking and some Climbing. It was a really nice relaxed holiday, great to relax after a busy period on university for both of us.

Some cool roof climbing in Spain

A three-day trip to the Frankenjura with José was my first time in the Frankenjura and the first time projecting a route outdoors. Thanks to José it was actually very motivating instead of boring and it made me climb my first 7c+! The beautiful landscape and great rocks as well as some unifinished 8a's makes me very motivated to go back to the Frankenjura as soon as possible! Click >>here<< for the link to the film of the 7c+. To get more used to trad Climbing so that I wouldn't be completely stuck with nuts and friends in Wales during the WICM (Women's Internation Climbers Meet, more about it below), I made two trips to Ettringen. One with Ibex, which was great to practise trad Climbing again, and one trip with Harald and Kees. Although Harald and Kees both have children, they keep on Climbing hard stuff, I really have a lot of respect for these two men! Although it has been raining all night, we found a piece of rock that was dry enough to climb on. After Climbing several routes, my eye fell on a beautifull small fingercrack, with left of it an arrete. Harald saw the beauty of it as well, and immediately made it a toprope. After seeing him trying, I tried one time on toprope as well. After working it out one time, the movements felt solid and I decided to give it a go on the lead. Having all my trust in my shoes standing on pretty much nothing in the first half of the route(without advertising, this is why I really love the trust that the Anasazi wms shoes give me) and with some nerves in the second half of the route, I topped it! Dance2techno, my first 7c trad! Later it turned out to be the second free ascent of the route, and the first female ascent. Amazing :D
Being creative with nuts in Ettringen.

With a 7c trad in my pocket I went with some more trust in trad Climbing to the WICM in Wales: a week-long trad Climbing meet with only women from all around the world. The meet took place in Llanberis, Wales (UK). After arriving Sunday early morning, I drove together with someone from Lutvia and a Brittish host climber to the hut in the Llanberis pass. There we met two other early birds: Francie from Germany and Chloe from Ireland. There were also some more host climbers and seeing the rocks outside, we decided to get out and get Climbing. Together with Chloe I climbed a nice 3 pitches long route. At the end of the route we got to meet the typical Welsh weather: rain. Soaked we arrived back at the hut, in which in the meanwhile more women had arrived. The rest of the evening was full with having nice chats with everyone. The next days were filled with Climbing, Climbing and more Climbing. I climbed on seacliffs, climbed on the Slates, climbed in the pass, climbed in the rain, climbed in the Sunshine, did some bouldering, did some singlepitch, did lots of multipitch and all of this in trad. Got the chance to climb with amazing people, climbed classic lines and had tons of fun. On the last day I decided to give the famous route Strawberries a go (E7 6b), but not taking a proper look in the guidebook in advantage made me ending up in Dream Topping(E7 7a). Oops... Managed to make all moves but felt too tired to climb it in one go. All together, I fell in love with the trad Climbing in Wales and definetely want to go back there soon! Also, it was a great experience to climb with so many enthousiastic female climbers. It was an unforgettable week! A more detailed story will come later.

Trying hard in dream topping

The day before leaving to the UK was the second round of the National Lead Climbing competition. Curious about how strong everyone (including myself) would be, I went to Amsterdam. The routesetter made a lot of work of the routesetting, and the routes turned out to be very nice. The Climbing went well and together with Nikki I topped both qualifications. The final route looked harder, but followed a nice line through the overhang. A far dynamic movement pushed me out of my comfort zone, which made holding it giving a great feeling. Forgetting to clip quickdraws costed more strength than necessary and being pumped I fell out the route when I was in the roof. Nikki managed to climb 7 moves further, which made her the winner of that day, me second and Lynn (falling 8 hold below me) 3rd.

Lead 2
At the beginning of the final route

So, what is next? The summer holidays are almost there, meaning time for a trip to the Frankenjura again, doing alpine, trad and sports Climbing in the Alps and maybe a visit to Wales. For this moment I am desperately writing a thesis proposal and looking forward to the summer holidays!

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